


In Your Valley, Beneath Your Sky

by sappy_spirit41



Category: Josh Homme - Fandom, Kyuss, Nine Inch Nails - Fandom, Queens of the Stone Age, Trent Reznor - Fandom
Genre: AKA Trent is young enough to be in high school with Josh, AU, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-08-19
Updated: 2018-04-04
Packaged: 2018-12-17 05:12:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 16
Words: 16,237
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11844642
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sappy_spirit41/pseuds/sappy_spirit41
Summary: A nerdy Pennsylvania boy named Trent Reznor forms an unlikely bond with Josh Homme, a jock who plays guitar in a stoner band.





	1. Welcome to Sky Valley

"This is... really... horrible..." 

Trent buried his head in his hands and sighed. The idea of moving to a whole new town in a state he'd never even visited was stressing him out, and to add insult to injury, the thought of going to a whole new school full of strangers terrified him. Everything Trent had known: his friends, family, and practically his entire life felt like it was being swept away. His stomach had been aching from anxiety throughout the car ride.

And sure, Mercer, Pennsylvania was fairly rural and boring, but it was his home. He couldn't just up and leave it all behind. But no, it seemed like his dad just _had_ to move all the way to California to work on more computers. Trent's dad had tried to give him and his sister a sales pitch for the move. "We'll have more money! And we can see the ocean!" Neither Trent nor Tera seemed too excited about this, but there was no use in debating it. Money seemed to be a major motivation for Trent's dad, and while it was great to be better off financially, Trent yearned to be back home, where everything he knew was safe and normal. 

The ride to Joshua Tree, California was one of the most repetitive car rides Trent had ever known. He'd been entertaining himself by staring out the window at the expanse of desert roads and cacti gardens that seemed to be repeating. He began to wonder if his dad had been driving in circles.

Trent looked to his right. His older sister, Tera, had her nose buried in a book. She had always been something of a bookworm, but this trip had her more invested in reading than he had ever seen. He got a closer look at the book's spine and saw it was one of those classics they'd make you read in school for a grade.

"Of Mice and Men," Trent muttered. "Wasn't that your summer reading assignment? You know we are transferring schools, right?"

Tera looked up from her reading and smirked at her brother. "At least I'm not bored out of my mind staring at the same 5 cacti."

"You got me there," Trent replied, slumping back into his seat. While Trent didn't have a book to read, he had a journal: a book he could write in. The tiny black leather journal had been a gift from Tera on one of her school field trips. Since she was older and more involved with different activities, she was able to go to conventions in different states and check out the cities. While she had been in a hotel in Chicago, she mailed the journal to Trent and included a souvenir pen along with it. It was the little things that made Trent thankful for Tera. She would be by his side no matter what kind of hardships or anxiety he was facing. But this car ride coupled with the feelings about transferring schools had given him inspiration for his writing. His scrawlings were usually small poems about his life. He wrote about everything from anxiety to his favorite school subject: math. He clicked the pen and began writing away. 

\-----

Trent ended up dozing off in the car and dreaming about his new life in Joshua Tree. The torment, the pain, the misery of starting a new school... it was enough to make your skin crawl. The car stopped and Trent jolted forward. His eyes snapped open and he looked outside the window. A cozy blue house stared back at him.

"Welcome home, Trent," his dad said jovially. "Let's get this car unpacked."

Trent, Tera, and their father carried box after box into the house. Even though moving was a hassle, Trent was relieved to finally have a place to sit other than the car. He had been desperate to practice piano, but considering the grand piano wouldn't fit in the car amidst everything else, Trent's dad had gotten him a mini keyboard. Trent was astonished by the technology - he could use any assortment of noises for his practice: marimba, guitar, or even the sounds of rainfall. He moved the keyboard into the basement and began messing around with it.

Hours passed of Trent fiddling around with the keyboard. Before he knew it, he hadn't even tried out all the settings, but it was almost midnight according to his watch. He yawned and headed back upstairs into where he assumed his bedroom was. Without his knowledge, Tera and his dad had set up a temporary bed- a mattress and boxspring covered in pillows and blankets - and moved all of Trent's boxes into the room. Trent's mind had changed about this new place. If his dad and sister had his back, then nothing could possibly go wrong. Trent closed his eyes, smiled, and sank into the bed.


	2. Space Cadet

Trent's first day at Palm Springs High was average. He had arrived feeling like a nervous wreck, but it was surprisingly a lot better than he was expecting.

Trent did notice, however, that things were done a little differently at Palm Springs. Because of the weather, he assumed, the dress code was practically nonexistent. He'd never seen so many skimpy muscle shirts and short-shorts in his life. Wearing a black button-down and khaki pants, Trent stuck out like a sore thumb.

Trent checked his schedule and began heading to algebra. He took an empty seat next to a blonde girl wearing an oversized black shirt covered in bleach stains. "KYUSS" was written on the front in orange fabric paint.

"Ky-uss?" Trent inquired. "What's that?"

The girl didn't look up from her homework. "They're just some local band. And they don't sell T-shirts, so I made my own."

"That's cool," Trent replied. He felt awkward making small talk with this girl. She was trying to do her homework, for God's sake!

"You're new here, right?" the girl asked. She put her book away and extended her hand. "I'm Emily."

"Trent," he said softly, wincing from the force of her handshake.

The bell rang and Emily winked at Trent. "After this class, I can give you the grand tour."

"I'd like that."

\-----

"So Kyuss is a band that plays these things called 'generator parties'," Emily explained as she walked Trent to lunch. "Basically, they drag a huge power generator out into the middle of the desert every weekend and they play to their heart's content."

"Sounds... interesting," Trent replied. "Are generator parties, like, a 'cool thing' around here?"

Emily laughed. "Yeah, but they can get pretty wild. Lots of drug deals go down out there. Also, someone almost got stabbed in the ass last week and they had to stop the show and call the cops."

Trent gulped. He suddenly wished he was back in Mercer, where the teenagers weren't violent drug dealers and serial ass-stabbers.

"Was the person who got stabbed in the... ass... okay?" Trent asked hesitantly, lowering his voice on the word "ass". He never swore, but he felt himself needing to impress Emily, and if she swore, then he would too, goddammit.

"Oh, he was fine," Emily replied. "I doubt he's gonna show up this Friday though. But that's besides the fact. Generator parties are a lot of fun, and I think there's one coming up. I could take you, if you want."

Well, it'd be a new experience, Trent thought to himself. "Sure, why not?"

Trent and Emily sat down at a lunch table. They had both packed their lunches and unwrapped their brown bags simultaneously. Trent had an intricately-wrapped sandwich and carrot sticks while Emily had a Twinkie and a can of Coke.

She cracked open her can and began pointing to different areas of the lunchroom. "Over there to the left is where my ex-best friends sit. Such bitches. Anyway..."

She moved her hand a bit more. "Those are the mathletes. They're good in a pinch if you forgot to do your homework. I know we've all been there."

Trent's ears perked up. He considered introducing himself to the mathletes for a brief second. They looked like intellectuals and he wondered if maybe he'd fit in with that crowd. He did enjoy math quite a bit. Maybe another kid at that table would be like him - a socially awkward classical musician who wrote poetry in his spare time.

It felt like hours of Emily pointing out tables and cliques while she gave witty commentary on each one. She finally made her way to a table in the far right, where four long-haired boys sat in a cluster.

"That's Kyuss." Emily sighed and smiled.

"That's them?" Trent asked. His mental image of a "local band" was a bunch of balding forty-somethings, not these long-haired jock kids. Trent looked closer and saw that they were all goofing around: using sporks to catapult food into each other's mouths, blowing straw wrappers at each other, and just generally being goofballs. Trent scoffed at their immaturity.

"Don't be fooled by the way they're acting. They're really talented musicians. Like, really talented..." Emily drawled.

"Are you sure? They're acting like a bunch of little kids," Trent replied. "If their music is anything like their attitude... count me out."

Emily chuckled and dug around in her backpack. She eventually pulled out a CD with a red cover and slid it across the table to Trent. Trent picked up the CD and analyzed it. _Blues for the Red Sun_ was the name of the album, and the design was a strange sort of tie-dyed pattern.

"They recorded this?" Trent asked, gesturing back to the Kyuss table. The idea of this album both astonished and baffled him. None of the boys at that table could have been any older than 15. How were they on a real music label, using recording studios and selling CDs while still going to a public high school? It was rather impressive.

Emily nodded. "It's so badass. The local music magazines have been saying that they're, like, grunge. Or 'desert punk'... whatever the hell that means. I just think they're sort of genre-neutral in a way. But still totally hardcore."

Trent felt his head spin from all the music terminology she was using. It was all Greek to him; all he knew about music related to classical music.

"Anyway," Emily continued, "if you're gonna come to the generator party, you're gonna need that."

Trent gulped and put the CD in his backpack. He was hesitant to listen to it, having barely understood a word of Emily's genre breakdown. But he saw something in Emily. Maybe it was her bleached blonde hair or the way she walked with such swagger and confidence. Trent felt himself maybe developing...feelings for her? No, that couldn't be true. He shook his head at the thought.

\-----

When Trent got home, his dad and sister seemed to be rushing to get their boxes unpacked.

"Hey, Trent!" His dad looked up from the box he was unpacking and smiled. "How was the first day?"

"It was okay, I guess," Trent replied apprehensively. "This girl named Emily showed me around."

Tera smirked. "Was she hot?"

"I don't know. I mean, she was kinda weird. She let me borrow some weird CD and told me about these 'generator party' things?"

His father's ears seemed to perk up at the word "party". "Well, I think you should definitely go to one of those parties she told you about. It'd be the perfect opportunity to make friends! It'd be your first high school party!"

Trent sighed. "I guess." He slung his backpack over his shoulder and headed down into the basement.

More boxes had been moved down, half-unpacked. His CD player sat on top of one of them. All he had to do was plug it in. Trent's hands were shaking as he put the plug in the wall. He wasn't sure why - everything was okay right now. Maybe he was just scared to listen to this strange CD.

Once he finally got the CD started, he took a seat on the wooden floor. The first track began with a slow, rolling riff. He began to wonder which one of the boys from the table was playing the riff. Maybe it was that redheaded guy, the one Trent saw flinging mashed potatoes into oblivion.

The riff got faster and heavier. Trent heard bashing, powerful drums. He found himself tapping his foot. "You don't seem to understand the deal! I don't give two shits on how you feel!" a growling male voice sang. Trent turned the dial up on the CD player, his interest officially piqued. His head was bobbing by this point.

He had never known music that sounded like this. He thought back to the two rock bands he was most familiar with: Led Zeppelin and Nirvana. Tera enjoyed both bands to the point where her bedroom walls back in Mercer were plastered in posters of the two bands. He'd heard the music playing from her bedroom ad nauseam. She had all the cassettes and CDs and slept in an oversized homemade shirt with the image of Kurt Cobain's face.

But Kyuss sounded nothing like either of these bands.

Kyuss was better.

Trent found himself enjoying more and more of the album, from its fast songs to its slower tunes to its strange instrumental tracks. He could've sworn he heard girls cheering in the background of some of them. Maybe one of the girls was Emily, or some of those old friends that she threw under the bus. Every day after school, Trent found his way down to the basement to listen to Blues for the Red Sun again and again and again until he had memorized what he could of the songs. In class, his thumbs would be tapping out the drumbeat to "Green Machine", his brain would play "Thong Song" while he waited in the lunch line, and his absolute favorite, "Writhe", was an earworm for him. He hadn't even known he was humming it to himself until Emily tapped him on the shoulder during algebra.

"You really dig Kyuss, huh?" she asked. Today, she was wearing an oversized blue flannel shirt over a white T-shirt and shorts, and her hair was tied up in two buns. Trent wondered how girls did that to their hair. He had seen Tera try it once, but end up with two huge, frizzy wads of hair on her head. Tera had looked like some kind of deranged dust-bunny when she tried it. He giggled at the memory.

"They're alright," Trent replied, trying to sound as lax as possible. He couldn't let Emily know that he had his own afternoon jam sessions in the basement. He would pretend to be the crowd, the drummer, the guitarist, and the singer all at once, and it got to the point where his dad and Tera were left wondering what the hell he was listening to down there.

"So, are you ready for the generator party tonight?" Emily squealed.

Trent nodded. "I think so."

Emily leaned far back in her desk until she slid a little. "Just gotta pull through three more classes. Then it's Kyuss time."

\-----

Trent had come back home to an empty house. His father had left him a note, stating that apparently he had to stay late at work and Tera was staying the weekend at a friend's house. Trent squinted to read the last portion of the note: "Have fun at the generator party, but don't bring any girls home!"

But how could he have fun? Deciding on clothes to wear had made him feel like a nervous, hopeless wreck. He didn't understand why, though - he was a boy and he didn't have to look nice. Yet he somehow felt if he wore his usual polos and khakis, he wouldn't feel at home at this concert. He had finally decided on a black tank top with some khaki shorts. It wasn't perfect, but it was definitely a step up from his usual look. He ran a comb through his hair just as the doorbell rang.

He opened the door and saw Emily, looking better than ever. She had pulled her hair up into a precariously high ponytail and was wearing black makeup under her eyes. She had the same flannel on, but with a much shorter shirt. Trent locked the door and Emily led him to a vintage convertible. The driver was the redheaded boy from the lunch table. He was wearing a blue tank top, and Trent saw that his muscular arms were dusted in freckles. He'd never seen so many freckles on someone so buff. It was kind of cute, in a way.

"Hop in," the boy said. He pulled out a cigarette and lit it as Trent crawled into the back seat. He was a bit cramped, having to squish next to a black electric guitar, an amplifier almost as big as him, and a case of beer.

"So... Trent, right?" the redhead asked.

Trent gulped. How did this guy know his name?

"Emily's told me a lot about you," he replied, as if he had been reading Trent's mind. "So, what did you think of Blues? Pretty trippy, huh?"

"It was... really good," Trent said nonchalantly. "But what do you mean by 'trippy'? I didn't...trip on anything."

Emily and the redhead boy laughed.

"Thanks for the compliment. I wrote those riffs instead of doing my homework," the driver remarked. "No need to trip."

"Trent, this is Josh," Emily said from the passenger's seat. "He plays guitar in Kyuss, and he's my boyfriend." She leaned over to kiss Josh on the cheek.

Trent coughed from all of Josh's cigarette smoke blowing back in his face. He felt himself growing angrier by the second. He didn't know how he felt about Emily, but her having a boyfriend made him feel... jealous? Betrayed? Annoyed? He felt something deep in his stomach, a fiery rage. Maybe the concert would soothe his nerves.

\----

Josh finally parked the car in what looked like the middle of nowhere. A massive power generator stood in the sand, and the rest of Kyuss was struggling to set it up.

A brunette boy lifted his head and smirked at Josh. "It's about time, Homme. Who's the kid?"

Josh scoffed and headed towards the generator. Trent followed, but felt insignificant behind Josh. This guy had to be at least 6'3, and judging by the biceps, Josh was fairly strong. Trent felt weak in comparison, with his laughable height and tiny arms. "That's Trent. This is going to be his first generator party."

"You never forget your first," a tan boy with curly hair replied as he adjusted his cymbals.

After a few hours of messing with the generator, it had gotten dark. More cars pulled up with high school kids and young adults piling out of them, waiting impatiently to see Kyuss. Trent smelled more and more cigarettes being lit up, and something smelled like a skunk, too. He stuck his nose in his shirt to mask the stench.

"You seem tense," Josh said to Trent between takes. "Need a smoke? A drink? Anything?"

Trent cleared his throat for what felt like the umpteenth time. "I can't believe you guys are in high school and you smoke."

Josh grinned. "We don't _just_ smoke. I've got some acid tabs in my pocket if that's your fix -"

"No thank you," Trent replied, sounding ruder than he had intended. "I mean... I just don't want to get in trouble with my dad."

"No, I get it, Trent. I probably shouldn't be doing this shit either, but... it's just whatever, y'know?" Josh tuned a few strings on his guitar. "But these years of your life are about getting in trouble and learning from it." He took a drag of the cigarette hanging from his mouth. "Learning how to not get caught, that is."

"Come on, Josh, we're about to start!" the bassist shouted from the performance area.

"Coming!" Josh yelled, craning his long neck. He turned back to Trent and smiled. "You're in the desert now. No rules."

Trent watched Josh walk off, stomping a cigarette under his hiking boots like it was no big thing.


	3. Writhe

An hour passed of the band setting up and the place ended up getting pretty packed. Trent, not being too fond of crowds - especially crowds of rowdy teenagers - was growing more and more anxious by the minute. He found it hard to relax and ended up getting pushed back into the growing crowd.

The brunette who had sassed Josh earlier was getting his microphone set up. The rest of the band played through some instrumentals while he took his sweet time getting to where he needed to be.  _What a hypocrite,_ Trent thought to himself. 

Throughout the show, Trent saw himself focusing on Josh. There was something so strangely captivating about him. Maybe it was his impressive height, or his freckles, or his red hair. Or maybe it was just the musical skill and integrity he possessed. Despite seeming like a dumb jock, Josh was a total brain when it came to music. All those complicated riffs seemed so easy when Trent watched him in awe. Even though Trent preferred piano, he was suddenly seeing the guitar in a different light. Maybe he could learn how to play like Josh did. And maybe Josh could help him...

The band had finally reached their last song, which Trent recognized as "Freedom Run". The crowd was starting to dissolve, and Trent breathed a sigh of relief. He was finally able to see the band later. Trent turned his attention to Josh, who had slowly been running through cans of beer throughout the three-hour set. Yet somehow, Josh didn't seem even the slightest bit tipsy. He could probably hold his alcohol well - the boy was built like a tank.

Throughout the concert, Trent found his preconceived notions of Josh changing. He began to wonder why Josh wasn't leading the band. Sure, the lead singer had a ton of integrity, but he just didn't seem as interesting as Josh. After all, didn't Josh write most of the songs all by himself? Maybe Josh just wasn't a good singer. As the song slowed to a halt, Trent entertained the thought of Josh singing.

The small amounts of teenagers cheered, whooped, and applauded as they found their way back to their cars. The band minus Josh all began to put their equipment into their cars. Josh, meanwhile, gave Emily a hug, nearly falling on her from his drunken stupor.

"Hey," he grinned at her, reaching for her backside. "You've got a nice ky-ass."

Emily blushed and Josh laughed at his own joke.

"How 'bout you 'Ky-uss' my ass," she replied slyly, pulling the blunt out of her mouth and grabbing the keys from his pocket. "You're too drunk to drive. Trent, do you need a ride home?"

"Yeah," Trent replied, still staring at Josh. It was a wonder how this boy was still standing and speaking intelligible English.

\-----

The ride home was strange. Emily, somehow sober, had put Josh and Trent in the back. Josh ended up falling asleep almost immediately and leaning on Trent's shoulder. Whenever Trent thought Josh was sound asleep, a bump in the road would shake him awake. He'd fall back asleep right after, but the constant up-and-down of Josh's slumber was getting annoying.

"Hey..." Josh whispered into Trent's shoulder. Trent looked down, startled. He figured Josh was out like a light.

"What is it?" Trent inquired.

"I..." Josh reached his arm over Trent's lap and slunk into Trent's chest. "...fuckin' love you..."

Emily chuckled. "Oh my God, Josh." She stopped at a stop sign and turned to Trent. "Don't worry about him. He doesn't mean it. When he gets all sleepy and drunk like this, he says a  _lot_ of dumb stuff."

Trent felt his face heating up. He had a handful of weird weekend experiences back home, but a drunk teenage boy drifting in and out of sleep on top of him was another story.

Emily finally stopped in front of Trent's house. Trent opened the door and pulled out his keys. Josh's head shot up and he ended up following Trent to the door.

"What are you doing?" Trent asked, unlocking the door.

"I need to stay the night here," Josh replied, sounding suddenly sobered.

Trent furrowed his brow and thought back to the note his dad had left him.  _No girls allowed._ Obviously, Josh wasn't a girl. But if he needed to, then Trent was sure his dad would understand.

Unless his dad never knew.

Josh was continuing to explain his circumstances. Being so lost in thought, Trent hadn't noticed.

"-'cause when I come home like this real late, my dad gets super pissed off and-"

Trent opened the door. "I guess it'll be fine. But why wouldn't you stay with Emily?"

"My parents would kill me," Emily piped up. "They wouldn't want me bringing my boyfriend home. But hey, this is a perfect opportunity! You two will get to know each other better!"

Before either boy could protest, Emily drove off. Josh looked down at Trent.

"Well, I guess it's just you and me..." Trent said, closing the door behind him and Josh. He flickered on a light. His family hadn't fully moved into the house yet, so it was still a sea of boxes. Trent led Josh upstairs to his unfinished bedroom, but Josh's height combined with his drunken state was a recipe for disaster. Trent eventually resorted to practically dragging Josh up the stairs.

"Almost there..." Trent grunted as he climbed the stairs with Josh dragging behind him. Trent flickered on the bedroom light and began pulling on some pajamas.

"I'm sleeping down here?" Josh asked, gesturing to the bed and box spring on the floor.

"Yeah," Trent replied, pulling a T-shirt on. "Actually, we both ar -"

Trent turned around and saw Josh pulling off his tank top. He quickly turned back to his corner of the room to mentally assess what he had just seen. Somehow, seeing Josh shirtless was making Trent's face turn as red as Josh's hair, and he felt a weird stirring in his stomach.

Judging by the night's events, Trent assumed Josh was something of a mild alcoholic. But Josh's body didn't fit that role at all. Josh had biceps. Josh had abs. Josh had v-lines.

Josh had a hot body.

"Uh... goodnight." Trent turned out the light and climbed into bed. Josh laid down on the other side, began claiming blankets, and started snoring.

Trent found it hard to sleep. He was cold, he was annoyed, and he was confused. Emily had seemed to capture Trent's heart with her wit and her looks, but something about Josh was interesting in a different kind of way. Josh had kind of a jerky attitude, but Trent knew that Josh could be nice. Hell, the guy tried to offer him a smoke! Trent thought maybe it was a crush, but he shrugged it off. Obviously, he was overwhelmed that there was a real life musician sleeping in his bed, and Trent knew somehow that everything would be okay once he got some rest.


	4. I Think I Lost My Headache

The sun crept through Trent's windows at 8 am. Trent squinted, mentally scolding himself for not having put curtains up yet.

Josh groaned and rolled over. He pushed the blankets off his bare torso. "Dammit," he mumbled. He stood up, his hand on his head. "That's just great..."

"What's the problem?" Trent asked, readjusting the blankets.

"I'm hungover. And I'm not even in my own home!"

Trent was confused. "What does that mean?"

Josh sighed and rephrased his complaints. "I have a headache."

"Well, okay... uh... Maybe there's some ibuprofen in the kitchen?" Trent said softly. "I can lead you to it -"

Before he knew it, Josh was gone. Maybe he went looking for the bathroom or something. Trent shrugged and walked down the stairs, figuring that Josh would find his way around eventually.

"Your house is the tits!" Trent heard from a room near him. He followed the voice and found Josh in a corner of the living room. He was sitting on a couch, holding Trent's dad's acoustic guitar. "You play?"

  
"No, I just play piano," Trent informed him, and sat down on the piano bench. "I have a keyboard in the basement."

"Piano is so cool," Josh told him. "I've always wanted to learn."

  
"I could maybe teach you a little bit," Trent said shyly. "But don't you still have a hangover or something?"

  
Josh shook his head. "This happens every week, actually. I'll be fine in, like, an hour."

Trent rolled his eyes. He'd barely known Josh for 24 hours, but he had the feeling Josh was a drama queen during every weekend hangover. He led Josh downstairs into the basement.

  
"I guess we can start with Chopsticks." Trent picked up Josh's hands and placed them on the appropriate keys. "Press here, then move here -" Josh was beginning to get the rhythm with Trent's guidance, and eventually was able to do a small duet with him.

  
"I'm really glad I'm kinda learning something while I'm here, y'know? If I had been home I don't think I would be learning another instrument." Josh laughed.

Trent smiled a bit. "I'm glad to help you. Piano is my favorite instrument."

"It's kinda like guitar, I guess." Josh fiddled with the keys and the settings. "Same sort of scales?" He ended up setting the electronic keyboard to sound like an acoustic guitar.  
Josh got up from the bench and grabbed the acoustic guitar he had brought downstairs.

"Nothing beats the real thing, though," Josh remarked. He began strumming softly. Trent listened; it was weird hearing this heavy, aggressive guitarist switch to something so soft and welcoming.

A few hours passed and Trent and Josh lost track of time. They were too busy creating music together, talking scales and time signatures and all sorts of things. The muffled sound of the doorbell startled Trent, and he headed upstairs. Josh started to linger, but Trent stopped him.

"I'm pretty sure that's my dad," Trent whispered. "He said I couldn't have friends over."

"Shit," Josh whispered back. "Whaddaya want me to d-"

"Hide!" Trent yell-whispered. He shut the basement door and headed up to greet his father.

"Whew, big night at the office. I'm beat," Trent's dad said, dropping his briefcase at the door. "How was your party, son?"

Trent laughed nervously. "Oh, it was fun. I... made a friend though." He could feel his guilty conscience seeping through.

Trent's dad smiled sleepily. "That's great! What's his name?"

Trent sucked in a huge breath of air. "His name is Josh, and I ended up, uh, accidentally taking him in for the night, which I wasn't supposed to do... I'm sorry, Dad..."

"I said no girls. You aren't in trouble," Trent's dad scoffed. "Is he still here?"

Trent breathed a sigh of relief that he wasn't in trouble, but if this teenager stuff was all about not getting caught, he'd have to learn how to control his mouth. "Yeah, but..."

"But what?"

"...Josh... left his clothes upstairs. He's in the basement in his boxers..." Trent mumbled.

"Oh. Should I give you guys some... privacy, I guess?" his father asked.

Trent nodded. "Yes. I-I mean, if that's no problem."

"It's no big thing," his father replied, grabbing his briefcase and traipsing up the stairs. "I'm gonna go upstairs and sleep. If this new job wants me staying so late, I might just quit."

Trent sighed in relief and felt like his body was a deflating balloon. He headed back into the basement to talk more music with Josh.


	5. We're In This Together

Trent passed Josh a can of Coke. "So where does the name Kyuss come from?" he asked.

Josh opened the can and took a sip. "Oh, it was some monster in Dungeons and Dragons, I think? And we started out as 'Katzenjammer', but recorded our first demos as 'Sons of Kyuss'..."

Trent was surprised. D&D was always seen as a game for... nerds. Josh was the polar opposite of that. Trent stifled a laugh, but tried to mask it with the sound of him opening his soda.

"Somethin' funny?" Josh asked, glaring at Trent.

Trent coughed and took a swig of his drink. "No, not at all. Why do you ask?"

"I thought I heard you laughing at me or something..."

Trent shook his head and covered his mouth from all the smiling he'd been doing. "Nope."

Josh glared over and squinted at Trent's watch, trying to see the time. "Shit, I should probably head home soon," he grumbled.

"Sure thing," Trent said, sounding sort of melancholy that his new friend had to leave. "I can run upstairs and grab your clothes for you."

Without getting a response, Trent headed upstairs and grabbed Josh's tank top and shorts where he had left them. Surely enough, there  _were_ acid tabs in his pocket, just like he had said. Trent stared at the little baggie of cerulean tablets, then stuffed them back where he found them. Josh's clothes smelled vaguely of cigarette smoke, and his hiking boots were surprisingly heavy. 

As Trent made his way back down into the basement, he heard something. It sounded like his father's acoustic guitar, and maybe something else. He began taking each step slower and quieter to focus on the sound.

Josh was...  _singing._ His California accent seemed more prevalent in his singing voice. He was no John Garcia, but Trent found himself in awe of Josh's voice. Trent had wanted to sing, but when his voice got deeper, he quit choir, frustrated with the inability to hit his usual high notes. Josh couldn't hit the high notes either - his deep singing voice would have some cracks and breaks in it. But Trent was enthralled.

Trent applauded softly as he reached the bottom of the stairs. Josh nearly jumped out of his skin and put the guitar back with shaking hands, like he'd just been caught stealing.

"You're a really good singer," Trent said admiringly, passing Josh the clothes.

Josh looked angered, but his face was still burning red from embarrassment. "Tell anyone you heard me singing and I'll kill you."

Trent was confused. Why was Josh so embarrassed of his singing voice? Josh began pulling the tank top over his head.

"I didn't mean to upset you..." Trent began.

"It's no big deal," Josh replied, brushing his long hair out of his eyes. "Right now, I just wanna get home."

"Um, okay... I can drive you home," Trent offered.

"Please do. Soon."

\-----

The ride to Josh's house was awkward and anxiety-inducing. Trent felt a strange feeling in his stomach. Maybe it was because he was so busy talking to Josh all morning that he didn't eat breakfast.

"Your dad seems really nice, letting me stay the night," Josh said. "Thanks, by the way. I know we just met, but it meant a lot to me."

Trent turned on his turn signal. "Yeah, he's pretty cool with that kind of thing. And, uh... no problem."

"My dad's... kind of a dick," Josh said softly.

Trent raised his eyebrows. He took a moment to look at Josh, who seemed to be absolutely sick to his stomach. He was twirling a piece of red hair over and over in his hand.

"Something wrong?" Trent asked.

Josh sighed and tucked his hair behind his ear. "No. I'm fine. Sorry. Thanks for the ride."

"See you Monday?" Trent hollered from the car. There was no response, just the sound of Josh's door slamming.

As Trent drove off, he began to wonder if that was true. Josh looked really sick, almost like he was going to throw up. And he was super quiet, too, which was weird. Sure, he'd only known Josh for less than 24 hours, but he knew Josh was definitely not the quiet type. Josh was loud, Josh was boisterous, Josh was exciting. Not this quiet, fidgety wreck.

Trent began running through everything he knew about Josh in his head to try and figure out what the issue could've been. Maybe it was the alcohol, but Josh seemed pretty sober all morning. Maybe it was the fact that Trent had said he was a good singer. Josh was probably super embarrassed.

And that on top of wanting to get home on time so he wouldn't get in trouble... Trent was starting to get it. Josh's dad was super strict and controlling at the least. Josh was probably lucky to be able to play concerts every weekend. Trent pulled into the driveway, still thinking about his new friend's home life.

It had been less than 24 hours, but Trent already cared about his new friend.


	6. Beginning of What's About to Happen

On Monday morning, Trent woke up, still a bit worried about Josh. He'd always been the type to empathize as much as he could, to the extent where someone else's pain would make him feel it too, in a way. Trent figured it was probably nothing, but he had an aching feeling deep in his gut.

He said hi to Emily when he got to his first period class, which was usually a free period. He had a test to study for, but he couldn't bring himself to do it.

"So, uh, Emily..." he whispered.

She looked up from the homework she'd been copying. "Yeah?"

Trent sighed. "So, do you, uh, know anything about Josh's parents? Cause when I was taking him home the other day he seemed really anxious in the car."

"He gets like that sometimes," Emily replied, passing the homework back and mouthing a thank-you to the mathlete she'd borrowed it from. "Sometimes he has bad trips."

"No, I mean... He was sober. He said my dad was really cool with letting him come over, then he said his dad was kind of a... jerk, and after that he was just really quiet and kept playing with his hair the rest of the ride home."

Emily took a finger to her chin in thought. "I wouldn't know personally, Trent, cause I've never even been to his house. He's told me some stuff but it didn't seem to, like, be a red flag for anything. I think it's best to just not worry about it."

Trent put his head in his hands and let out a deep sigh. "I'm still gonna worry. It's just what I do."

"I'm sure he'll be okay," Emily replied reassuringly.

\-----

Emily and Trent sat down for lunch in their usual spot. Trent worriedly turned his head over to where the Kyuss boys sat and scanned the table for Josh.

"He's not at school," Trent said.

"Like I said, could've just been a bad trip," Emily replied, taking a bite of her sandwich. "Just try not to worry, okay? If it makes you feel better, I call him every night after school. So if I hear anything weird, I'll let you know tomorrow."

Trent smiled a bit. He felt like a weight had been lifted off his shoulders. "Okay."

\-----

When Trent arrived back home, his sister was sitting on the porch, as if she was waiting for him.

"Yo, Trent," she said, grinning. She was wearing a maroon lipstick and had accidentally gotten some on her front teeth. Trent wondered if he should tell her, or if she knew. Tera dangled some car keys in front of her brother. "I'm bored. Do you wanna go for a ride?"

Trent shrugged. "I don't see why not."

She unlocked her dad's minivan and climbed in. Trent followed.

"So, anything new in your world?" she asked, putting the keys in the ignition.

Trent felt that weird anxious feeling rising in his stomach again, but he decided not to tell her anything. "Uh, not really."

"How's the new school?"

"It's good," he replied, kicking his feet up on the dashboard.

Tera raised an eyebrow at her brother's unusually nonchalant attitude. "Is there something you wanna talk about?" she asked as she flicked her turn signal on.

Trent gulped. "I mean, it's kinda stupid, but..."

"I doubt it's stupid." Tera adjusted the radio so she could hear him better.

"Okay, so I have this new friend, right? His name is Josh. And I'm starting to worry about him, cause he said his dad, uh, wasn't very nice, and he seemed really on edge when I drove him home the other morning. Oh, and he wasn't at school today. Trent felt like he had been word-vomiting all over the car, but Tera was nodding and listening to every word.

"What exactly did he say about his dad?" Tera asked.

Trent blushed. Tera knew Trent didn't swear and he felt like she was putting him on the spot to make her laugh at the absurdity of Trent swearing. "He, uh, said his dad was a...dick?"

Tera nodded and licked her lips. "Mm-hmm. That's some pretty strong language.  _Much_ stronger than calling him a jerk, don't you think?" She stopped in the parking lot of a local ice cream place and silently gestured to the sign. "It's probably nothing like the stuff in Mercer, but let's give it a shot, huh?"

Trent nodded. He'd take anything to soothe his anxiety-ridden stomach and to beat the California heat. The two sat in their dad's minivan, shoveling vanilla ice cream into their mouths.

Tera tapped the spoon against the plastic container. "So, Trent, I want you to look out for Josh, but I don't want you to worry about it too hard. Chances are that you're just overthinking things. But if you see any red flags, you should maybe mention it to your school counselor. Put the word out there and let a higher-up handle the situation."

"I mean, I guess I could try." Trent leaned over to play with the radio to distract himself from feeling sorry about Josh.

"...and here's something different," a radio DJ began. "This local band has been tearing up the desert scene lately, and they're all still in high school! This is Kyuss, with 'Green Machine'!"

Trent nearly leaped out of his skin as he cranked the radio way up. He had tuned in at just the right time.

"What is this?" Tera asked, having to yell over the music.

"It's Josh's band!" Trent replied excitedly. "They're on the radio!"

The song ended and Trent had a big grin on his face.

Tera turned to look at her brother, sharing a nearly identical grin with him. "I usually don't like the types of music you like, but... That was awesome..."


	7. Down in It

Another day of Josh not being at school was making Trent more and more concerned for his friend's well-being. He cursed under his breath, scolding himself for not finding other ways of getting in contact with Josh, like a phone number or something. He sat in his English class, drumming his fingers against the desk nervously. He couldn't focus on a word the teacher was saying. It all felt like mush in his head.

The classroom door swung open, distracting Trent from his thoughts. He turned around and saw Josh, standing in the doorway.

"Sorry I'm late," Josh muttered, handing the teacher a late-to-school notice. He took his usual seat next to Trent. Trent looked over and noticed Josh didn't have anything he needed for the class. Being the generous friend he was, Trent slid the class textbook closer to Josh so they could share it.

The bell rang and Trent began collecting his things.

"Sorry I wasn't at school," Josh said, passing Trent the book.

"No, it's okay," Trent replied, stuffing it into his backpack.

His jaw dropped as he looked up at Josh, who was trying to cover a massive bruise on his cheek.

Trent gestured to the bruise. "What's that from?"

Josh grinned his usual cocky grin, but his cheek was a bit swollen. "I got into a fight."

"With who?"

Josh began walking out of the classroom. Trent followed.

"It was, uh... Actually, I was walking home from John's place and I almost got mugged. The guy tryin' to steal my stuff got me right here," Josh replied, pointing to his swollen cheek. "Hurts like a bitch. But at least I didn't lose my wallet. Anyway, how have you been?"

Trent raised an eyebrow. "I've been fine." He felt like adding something to his response, maybe a well-placed  _I missed you_ or something like  _I worried about you after I dropped you off because you didn't seem okay,_ but he decided against it. "But why did you miss Monday and, like, half of today?"

"Oh, you know," Josh said slyly. "That's just how it is. I've gotta go to class now." He began walking away quickly, almost as if he was trying to avoid Trent.

\-----

Tera picked Trent up from school. Somehow, she had gotten her hands on a copy of  _Blues for the Red Sun_ and was blasting it in her father's station wagon. Trent opened the door and was welcomed by the long, winding "Freedom Run" intro.

"How's it hangin'?" she asked, turning the stereo down. Trent could hear the beginning of those rolling bass lines.

"It's alright," Trent replied, putting his backpack by his feet.

Tera scoffed. "'Alright'? Trent, that's such a strange thing to say. What made your day just 'alright'?"

"Well," Trent began, readjusting his seat belt, "Josh was back today."

"Oooh! That's exciting. Did you find out anything?"

Trent shook his head. "He didn't tell me anything. Well, he did..."

Tera drummed her fingertips on the steering wheel while at a red light. "What was it?"

"He said he got mugged."

"That's weird," Tera replied as she slid into the right lane. "How did that come up?"

"Well, he had a huge bruise on his cheek and his face looked kinda swollen. I mentioned it to him." Trent felt his body tense up. "S-should I not have mentioned it?"

The car was silent minus the " _Well_ , _I'll break through... Well, I'll steal for you..."_ coming from the car's cassette player. Trent wanted to turn up the stereo just to ease the tension so he wouldn't have to talk anymore, but a part of him stopped him.

"That seems like a red flag, Trent," Tera said sternly.

She parked the car in the driveway. Trent began to step out, but she grabbed the back of his shirt and pulled him back in.

"Get back in. We're going for a ride."


	8. In the Fade

"I guess it's good that I know where he lives, huh?" Trent said, laughing nervously.

"No shit," Tera replied. "If I had to drive around blindly looking for this kid's house, I don't think things would end well."

Tera turned off the car and pulled over near Josh's house. She began to roll the window down on her side and gestured for Trent to do the same.

"What are we doing exactly?" Trent asked.

Tera put a finger to her lips. "We wait," she replied in a low whisper.

Trent unbuckled his seat belt and braced himself for whatever his sister expected to happen.

\-----

At least an hour passed of complete silence. Trent kept trying to make conversation with Tera, but she kept shushing him. He felt a little insulted each time, but he slowly grew to understand the weight of the situation. He bit his tongue just in case.

Tera cupped her hand around her ear suddenly. "Do you hear that?" she mouthed. Trent sat up in the car and leaned out the window. Surely enough, he heard muffled yelling coming from Josh's house.

"Let's get closer," she whispered to Trent as she slowly slunk out of the car and closed the door as softly as humanly possible. Trent followed.

They both laid low near the house, trying their best to stay out of eyesight. The yelling continued, but Trent couldn't make out a word of it. All he knew was that Josh and his dad were arguing about something. He wondered how often and severe it was. Maybe it was a scolding made in jest. Maybe it was because Josh had a tendency to do stupid things and his dad was finally catching him. Maybe it was something silly, like Josh left his amplifier plugged in or he forgot to wash a dish or something. Anything.

Suddenly, Trent heard something that sounded like glass shattering. Yelling soon followed. Tera stood up slowly and began leading Trent around the back of the house to a huge sliding glass door. Trent could see into Josh's house: his kitchen, his living room...

The living room was where the noise had come from. Trent sat up a bit and saw Josh and his father, both standing and arguing with each other. The glass sat on the floor near Josh's foot, which looked like it was bleeding. Trent tried to squint to see more of the situation, but you can only trespass through a sliding glass door for so long.

"We should probably leave," Tera whispered, using her intuition. Trent stood up and began to scale the opposite side of the house back to the car. Tera and Trent both let out a massive sigh of relief once they got in the car.

"Okay," Trent began once the car was in motion, "we heard yelling. I mean, Dad yells at us sometimes, and -"

"Not like that!" Tera exclaimed. "Dad will rarely snap if he's in a bad mood. Josh's dad... oh God." She shuddered. "It just makes me so depressed to know that kids have to go through that sort of thing."

Trent nodded. "And did you hear that glass break? That scared me."

"Scared me too."

Trent ran a hand through his short bangs. "Do you think we need to do something more? Like, call the cops or something?"

Tera shook her head and navigated a turn. "Not yet. Just keep me posted."


	9. I'm Not

Another day at school for Trent meant another thing to worry about. Yes, he liked school - he even prioritized it - but he felt like the drama with Josh's home life had been so overwhelming.

Thankfully, Josh seemed to be in good spirits. The bruise on his face had practically disappeared, and he seemed pretty normal, at least for Josh. He had invited Trent to sit over at his lunch table, which he called the Kyuss Table, and he introduced all of his friends to Trent.

"Trent, this is Nick, he's been my best friend since middle school."

Nick smiled at Josh. "Remember that time we did shots in the locker room?"

Josh laughed. "Hell yeah, dude. That was fun."

"Anyway, This is John, he's got a killer voice and the softest hair I've ever seen."

John pretended to be embarrassed. "Aw, shucks, you're makin' me blush."

"And finally," Josh finished, pointing to the tan boy at the end of the table. "This is Brant. He's my dealer. Oh, and he plays drums, too, I guess." Brant looked up from the book he'd been reading and waved to Trent.

"Uh, thanks Josh." Trent brushed his bangs out of his eyes. "What's got you so excited?"

Josh smiled. "Oh, you know, me and the guys... have a tour to go on."

Trent gasped. "That's... actually really awesome for you guys!"

Josh nodded. "Uh-huh. So that means we'll be gone for..." He began counting on his fingers. "...about two weeks."

Trent felt his shoulders slump, but he wasn't sure why. He barely knew Josh, and had just been personally introduced to the rest of the band. But he felt his heart sink in his chest. He'd miss Josh and the generator parties for two weeks. It'd be the longest two weeks of his life.

"It's okay," Josh said, extending an arm to pat Trent's shoulder. Trent felt his body tense up. "It's not until, like, two months from now."

"I'll miss you," Trent blurted out.

Nick scoffed jokingly. "And you won't miss us?" He gestured widely to John and Brant, who were pretending to look upset.

"Uh, I mean..." Trent trailed off.

Josh stood up to throw away the trash from his lunch. The three boys instantly turned to Trent.

"Josh has been tellin' us about you, and if you so much as lay a finger on him..." John punched his fist into his palm. The other boys joined, trying to look threatening.

Trent gulped. "O-okay..."

John, Brant, and Nick began laughing. "Dude, we were just fuckin' with you," John said. "We're not, like, his dad or anything."

 _The three of you would be a better collective dad,_ Trent found himself thinking. He excused himself from the table. "I need to, uh... head to class early."

As he began walking away, he bumped into Josh. The height difference between them was awkward, as Trent practically slammed his face into Josh's chest. His toned, freckly chest...

"Uh, sorry," Trent said, dashing out of the cafeteria. Josh kinda shrugged as he made it back to his table.

\-----

Math class proved to be interesting. Trent felt like he was still on edge, but he wasn't sure why.

Emily must've taken notice and ended up passing him a note.  _Something wrong?_

Trent pulled out his ballpoint pen and wrote underneath her clean, frilly handwriting.  _No._

Emily looked confused as she read the note. One word. Two letters. N-O. What was so hard to grasp? Nothing was wrong.

But nothing was right, either.

As the bell rang, Trent made it to English without walking with Emily like he normally did. He took his seat next to Josh, who was feverishly writing something in a notebook.

"What are you writing?" Trent asked, "I mean, if you don't mind me looking."

Josh used his arm to cover the writing. "It's nothing. Just, uh... Never mind."

The bell rang to begin class. Trent was paying attention to the lesson, but every so often he'd look over and see that Josh wasn't. He was still writing in that notebook, and he was writing something he didn't want Trent to see. At the end of class, he tore it out, folded it, and stuck it in Trent's shirt pocket.

Trent looked down into his pocket and pulled the note out. It was littered with eraser marks and things were crossed out all over it.

_Trez,_

~~_I've been thinking about you lately._ ~~ _Let's hang out somewhere. Maybe back at your place? We can talk more about music or whatever. I'll be able to hang ~~at 5~~ right after school._

_-Joshua_

Trent refolded the note and began putting his book back into his backpack.

"So uh," Josh asked softly. "See you later today?"

Trent smiled with his mouth closed. "Sure."


	10. You Know What You Are

After school, Trent stood in a corner by Josh's locker, waiting on him to go do whatever. He was still a little confused by the note, but any opportunity to hang out with Josh was golden. He pulled out his journal and began to write to pass the time, but was interrupted by Josh walking up to him.

"Whatcha writin'?" Josh asked, trying to peer over Trent's shoulder.

Trent closed the book, blushing. "Oh, y'know... just some poetry."

"Cool." Josh opened his locker, pulled out a jacket, and slammed it shut with his foot. He pulled the jacket on over his T-shirt and dug out a set of car keys. "You wanna ride someplace?"

Trent felt his throat tighten. He knew that he shouldn't - Tera was probably waiting in the parking lot to pick him up. But one day, one time, one little act of teen rebellion couldn't be  _too_ dangerous, right?

"Sure," he heard himself say.

Riding with Josh was exciting and dangerous. Josh was a fast driver and he knew all the shortcuts. He played his music loud, and a box of cassettes lay by Trent's feet. Trent began to look through them. Black Flag, Misfits, Led Zeppelin... Josh had some damn good taste, and even if Trent wasn't seasoned on his punk and classic rock music, he could hear an influence in Josh's playing.

Josh stopped the car at an ice cream place, the same one where Tera and Trent had talked.

"I can pay for you if you want," Josh offered as they walked in. "What kind do you want?"

"Just a small vanilla," Trent replied.

Josh smiled. "Good choice. Vanilla is the _only_  flavor of ice cream, as far as I'm concerned."

When they got their ice cream, they headed back outside and sat in the grass near Josh's car.

"So, uh, are you excited to go on tour?" Trent asked.

Josh sat up straight. "Hell yeah, dude! It's gonna be awesome!"

"Where are you guys going?"

"Oh, just different states," Josh replied, licking his ice cream. "I'm just excited to get out of California. And I bought this jacket in case it's, like, cold elsewhere."

Trent smiled. "It's like 90 degrees right now."

"I'm protecting myself from brain freeze," Josh jokingly scoffed. "You wouldn't understand."

The two boys burst out into laughter.

"But anyway..." Josh said, kicking one of his long legs up, "we're touring with  _tons_ of other bands we know. It's gonna be wicked."

"I'll miss you," Trent said softly.

Josh sat up straight again and ruffled Trent's bangs. "I guess I'll miss you, too." He winked.

"So, um, the other day..."

Josh cocked an eyebrow. "What about the other day?"

Trent felt himself turning red. He needed some of that brain freeze Josh was talking about. Maybe it'd cool his nerves.

"I heard about your dad, so me and my sister went to investigate, and-"

Josh held up a hand. "Whoa, whoa, whoa.  _What_ did you say?"

"I-investigate?!"

Josh scoffed. "What the fuck, are you stalking me or something?"

Trent fidgeted nervously with his shirt sleeve. "No, I just... I've been worried about you?"

"Why are you worried about me? I'm fine. Everything's fine," Josh replied quickly.

"I-I'm sorry..." Trent trailed off.

"Why the hell do you care so much? You just met me."

Josh stood up and began walking to his car.

"I don't know!" Trent stood up and followed Josh. "I just really care about you, and I-"

Josh slammed his car door shut and started the engine. "What goes on at my house is none of your fucking business," he yelled over the rumbling engine.

He reversed from his parking spot and headed out, leaving Trent in the grass. Trent was pissed - not only did Josh drive off in a hurry, but he drove off with Trent's backpack still in his car. That backpack had spare change that he could use for a payphone, to call his sister and apologize for getting a ride with Josh and hope that she had the heart to pick him up.

Trent's hands were shaking as he dug around in his pockets for a quarter. A quarter would give him a couple minutes to maybe explain himself and where he is, but he hoped and prayed not to ramble, because he only found one coin and couldn't afford extra minutes.

The quarter made a clinking noise as Trent slipped it in. He picked up the receiver and began dialing the house phone.

_Ring. Ring. Ring. Ring..._

Trent sighed and hung his head. It was just his luck that neither Tera nor his dad were at home to save him. And with no money left to call someone else, Trent began to walk home. He had a general idea of where his house was, but he just prayed that he knew the way. Or maybe that he could get hit by a car on his way home instead, so he wouldn't have to face certain punishment for a minor act of teen rebellion that ended up probably ruining his friendship.

Trent fought back tears as he crossed street after street.


	11. Fairweather Friends

_What was wrong with Josh?_ Trent thought to himself as he trudged his way home.

He was still in shock. Nobody - no adult, no friend, nobody in his life - had  _ever_ snapped at him so severely like that. Trent wasn't doing anything wrong, or trying to hurt his friend. He was just trying to help.

 _But if some weird kid I barely knew was watching me through my sliding-glass window, I'd be a bit uneasy, too,_ Trent considered.

He let out a deep sigh and felt his body slump, but he immediately snapped back upright at the sound of a car honking its horn at a stop sign.

"TRENT!" the driver yelled. Trent looked closer and saw Tera in the driver's seat. "Get in!"

Trent crossed onto the street and into the car.

"Where the hell were you this afternoon?" Tera yelled. "I was worried sick! And I tried to call Dad, but he was busy!"

Trent gulped. "It's a long story."

"I've got time."

"Josh passed me a note and said he wanted to hang out, so we did, and everything was fine until..." Trent sniffled. "...I, uh, mentioned his dad and-"

Tera raised her eyebrows. "Oh, Trent... Why did you do that?"

"I don't know!" Trent yelled, trying to sound like he wasn't crying. "I've just never dealt with a friend who has these problems and I just... w-wanna help!"

Tera pulled into the driveway. Trent got out and tried to get into the house, but Tera scooped him up into a hug.

"Trent, you care so much about your friend. I'm glad you're safe, but you gotta let me know what you're going to be up to, okay?"

Trent tried to wriggle out of the hug. "Y-yeah... sorry. It was just so short-notice." He wiped his eyes. "Also he got really mad when I mentioned the whole 'stalking' thing and, uh, drove off with my backpack. I tried to call you! But nobody picked up!"

"I was looking for you, Trent!"

Trent kicked a pebble in the grass he'd been standing in. "I wasted my last quarter."

"Allow me to reiterate," Tera said, unlocking the door. "I'm just glad you're safe."

\-----

The next day at school was nerve-racking for Trent; not having his backpack was a big issue and something that he found hard to explain. But most importantly, Josh's outburst had terrified him. Josh was so relaxed, and it was so unlike him to practically go berserk, yet Trent felt like he could get beat up at any time. Those strong muscles, that height, that rage... Josh was definitely someone you didn't want to cross.

Trent took his usual seat in English next to Josh and saw that his backpack was sitting on the floor, where Trent usually put it during lessons. He smiled a bit and sat down, thankful that at least something could return to normal.

"Hey," Josh whispered.

"Hi," Trent whispered back.

"You got any paper I could borrow?"

Trent rolled his eyes. The Josh he knew and loved (platonically) had returned. He tore out some lined notebook paper and passed it to Josh, who began writing on it.

As the bell rang, Josh slid the paper over to Trent and winked. "Whaddaya think?" Josh asked as Trent unfolded the note.

_My dearest Trent,_

_I'm extremely sorry for the way I acted yesterday, and to make it up to you, I'd like to invite you to the skate park on Friday night. I don't know if you skate, but it's beautiful out there. We could crack open some cold ones and talk about life. I've invited Nick, Brant, and John, and I'll even bring some apple juice or whatever you like since I'm assuming you don't drink._

_Let me know if you're able to hang and I'll try not to steal your backpack again. Haha! No promises, though._

_-Joshua_

Trent smiled as he put the note in his pocket. Friday was tomorrow, so he had plenty of time to actually ask his dad and Tera if he could go someplace after school.

This was exciting to him. Time with his best friend actually seemed to be working out despite a few bumps and bruises along the way.

On the way home, he eagerly thought about how 24 hours from that moment would be the same, but he'd be in Josh's car on the way to the skate park, this beautiful picturesque area that Josh probably thrived in. Trent began to wonder what kinds of places he could invite Josh to in return for this gratitude.


	12. Only

Friday night had arrived and Trent was eager to hang out with Josh for the first time in what felt like forever. Sure, his girlfriend and the guys from Kyuss would be there, but Trent saw no real issue with that. The more, the merrier, he told himself as he took a seat on his front porch and waited for Josh's car. If Trent remembered correctly, the skate park wasn't too far from where the generator parties usually were. In fact, he could see the half-pipe a few blocks past where the generator parties were typically held.

The sound of Josh's car pulling up made Trent's eyes widen. He stood up and waved at Josh enthusiastically. Josh mustered one of those lame little half-waves back. Trent hopped in the car and they headed off.

There was pretty... interesting music blasting from Josh's car radio. Trent looked down and squinted at the cassette that was jammed in there.

"Blondie?" Trent asked.

Josh tried to hide the fact that he was blushing.

"Isn't that, like, chick music?" Trent continued.

Josh chuckled nervously, but it came out more like a cough. "I'm trying to be less guilty about my ...  _guilty pleasure music._ And Debbie Harry clearly knows her stuff - check this song out."

Trent thought about that for a second. He watched Josh lean over to turn the song up, nodding his head rhythmically.

Josh parked the car by the half-pipe and opened up the trunk to grab the case of beers. Trent followed, and Josh handed him a massive jug of apple juice.

"Oh. Thanks," Trent said, trying to use what very little upper body strength he had to carry the jug. "So, where are the others?'

Josh sat down and lit a cigarette. His long legs dangled precariously down into the empty half-pipe. "Oh, uh, they had some... schoolwork to do and they couldn't make it. Haha."

Trent sat down next to Josh and pried open the jug. "So they're not gonna be here at all?'

"Nope." Josh pulled the brim of his hat down to cover his face, which was turning redder by the minute.

Trent held the jug over his head and took a big swig. "Are you sure?"

"Yeah. Just - shut up." Josh grabbed a beer from the six-pack.

"Everything alright?" Trent asked.

Josh nodded, then let out a deep sigh. Trent saw his shoulders slump significantly. "I lied. I just wanted to spend time with... you. Alone. In my favorite spot in the world."

Trent gasped. This was pretty special to him; he didn't have a lot of friends back home who were inviting him to go places and spend time with them. The very thought of it made Trent wonder if he was really Josh's friend or just being treated nicely out of pity. He tried to shake the thought, but it stuck in the back of his mind for the rest of the night.

Without thinking, Trent grabbed for a beer. Alcohol was a forbidden fruit, and despite it being rampant even back home, he had no desire to drink anyway. But one beer wouldn't hurt, right? It wouldn't make him an alcoholic. He used the bottom of his shirt to pop the cap.

"Oh, shit." Josh looked over at the opened beer in Trent's hand. "Your first beer."

"My first b-beer," Trent repeated, holding the bottle up with a shaking hand.

"You never forget your first." Josh held his bottle up, too, and grabbed the apple juice jug with his other hand. "We should have a toast."

"Alright, but to what?" Trent asked, his hand still quivering.

"Um... to friendship. And to music. And to... whatever the hell."

"To whatever the hell," they both announced, clinking their beer bottles together and taking celebratory swigs.

Well, Josh took a swig. Trent first brought the bottle to his nose, trying to get a feel for what beer even  _smelled_ like. He wrinkled his nose in disgust.

"What're you waiting for?" Josh asked.

Trent shrugged and took a sip.

He instantly spit it out into the half-pipe.

"Oh my God, that's disgusting!" Trent yelled, standing up.

Josh collapsed onto his back, laughing. He was dangerously close to the edge of the half-pipe, but Trent knew somehow he wouldn't slip.

"It tastes like pee!" Trent continued. He paused for a moment and looked at the bottle's label. "But... I want to finish this bottle."

Josh sat up and smiled. "Do it! Drink the piss!"

Trent sat down and gave Josh a playful nudge on the shoulder. "You're so gross."

"Hey, if you don't wanna drink that, you know I'd love to," Josh replied, retaliating with a nudge that was a little bit strong.

"No!" Trent was suddenly defensive of this drink that he hated the taste of. "Lemme finish it!"

"Dilute it with the apple juice," Josh suggested.

"No," Trent repeated. "All or nothing."

 _You only live once,_ Trent reassured himself as he chugged the rest of the bottle. When he put his head back down to eye level, Josh was clapping and cheering.

"Whoo! Drink that beer!"

Trent smiled and rolled his eyes. He knew it hadn't been much, but something about him felt a little... lighter. He was like a floating feather, and in his own head, everything outside of him was a thousand times more fun. He didn't know what to make of this new floaty feeling, but he knew that it was a nice one.

\-----

According to the laws of gravity, however, every floating feather reaches the ground at some point, but sometimes it needs a little push to pull itself back up. That little push was another bottle of beer, then it was back to that sweet feathery state that Trent grew to love. Josh eventually stumbled back into the trunk of his car to pull out another six-pack.  _How many did he need?_ Trent thought to himself, but the fact that there was an excess of alcohol was almost reassuring to him. He'd stay drunk forever with his best friend if he could.

"Can I tell you something?" Josh asked, cracking open another bottle. He had lost count.

"Sure," Trent replied, feeling his head start to tilt to the right and onto his shoulder.

"I wanna break up with Emily," Josh whispered. "D-don't tell anyone, though!"

Trent drunkenly brought his finger to his own mouth in a shushing position. "Your secret's safe with me, Joshuuuua."

Josh laid back down, holding his bottle in both hands on his chest. "She's such a bitch," he continued. "She thinks that just cause I'm her boyfriend, that I need to, like, sacrifice all my hobbies and shit and spend every waking moment with her! I hate it!" Josh threw the bottle into the half-pipe, and it shattered. "That was empty," he reassured Trent.

"That really sucks. About Emily, uh..." Trent shrugged. "She was nice to me, I guess? When we met?"

"She's a student tour guide, dude. That's her job."

"Ohhhh."

"Trent, have you ever dated anyone before?" Josh asked, taking his hat off and laying it over his face.

Trent crossed his legs and reached for another bottle. "No, why?"

"Cause if I were a girl, I'd date you," Josh replied. "You're so much nicer than anyone I've ever met, y'know?"

Trent felt his smile widening. He didn't know that, actually. He felt like the way he reacted to things made him seem like some cold-hearted, awful person. But Josh saw the good in him. "Thank you, Josh," he finally managed to say. "I 'preciate that a lot."

"You're very welcome."

It was dead silent for a few minutes. Trent pulled his legs to his chest and let out a deep sigh. Josh lit another cigarette and blew a smoke ring upwards.

The sky was gorgeous this time of night. The sun was setting, leaving the sky a pale orange and pink color. Trent was so mesmerized by its beauty and felt himself inching closer and closer to Josh. He saw Josh's blue eyes flit over towards him, then back up to the sky.

Trent felt his heart trying to break out of his chest like it was a prisoner of his own ribs. Somehow, in this drunken state of mind and body, he knew it wasn't anxiety he was feeling. It was love.

He loved Josh. He loved his best friend. Was it platonic? He wasn't so sure anymore.

Trent was startled from his thoughts as Josh shifted his body closer to Trent. He heard Josh's hand slapping the pavement, blindly looking for something to hold.

The warmth of Josh's hand slipped Trent further down into his feathery self. He had never felt this warm before.

Josh turned to face Trent, his nose mere inches away. He pressed his head down into Trent's shoulder and extended his other arm over Trent's torso. Trent gulped, but decided not to intervene. This was a little strange, but it was fine. It was okay. This was just the way things were sometimes. He freed his other arm and crossed it over Josh's.

They both sat up simultaneously, arms still interlocked in a strange pretzel of freckled and pale skin.

"Trent, have you had your first kiss?" Josh whispered, face still buried in Trent's shirt sleeve.

"No," Trent responded.

Josh pulled his head up and smiled drunkenly. "You never forget your first."

The union of their lips was something that Trent was unfamiliar with. All he knew was that this thing, this kiss, this whole teen rite of passage was something he'd probably never experience until he graduated. And that was totally fine with him, for the most part. This was something else. This was unexpected and strange, yet somehow comforting and calming. Josh's lips were soft, and, Trent assumed, well-experienced. 

Yet Trent didn't feel like he was at the end of a long line of people that Josh had kissed, waiting his turn in some kind of kiss-exchange service.

Trent felt like the only one.


	13. The Lost Art of Keeping a Secret

"Oh my God." Trent began giggling, his face still bright red.

Josh smirked. "That was your first kiss. Would you like to rate it from a scale of one to ten?"

"Ten!" Trent yelled, grinning. He began to feel his face drop. "But, I uh, don't think it's right?"

Josh crossed his legs and pulled a cigarette from his shirt pocket. "What's wrong?"

Trent sighed, feeling like a massive balloon deflating. "You have a girlfriend."

"That's true. But what's a little experimentation between guys?"

"I'm just really worried now." Trent nervously ran his fingers through his bangs.

Josh leaned in and pressed his cheek into Trent's shoulder. "Don't worry. She doesn't have to know." He softly kissed Trent's shoulder. It was strange, but it gave Trent a sense of comfort. "It's going to be okay."

Trent gulped, the stale taste of beer still lingering on his tongue. He certainly hoped so.

* * *

 

The next Monday at school felt awkward. After his drunken time with Josh, he felt more confused than ever about his feelings. Life wasn't fair, making him feel so confused and sick to his stomach at just the thought of it all. Yet, he was content. It was his first kiss, anyway; a teen rite of passage had already been completed. He felt somewhat accomplished, but also felt like he was wearing a scarlet letter. He hadn't told a soul, not even his sister, but he felt like everyone knew somehow.

"Hey, Trent," Emily said, passing him in the hall. "Have you seen Josh?"

 _I sure have,_ Trent thought to himself. He glanced up at her, face growing hotter by the minute. The shame and regret was sure to spill out in no time. He had a habit of telling on himself all the time. But instead, he just looked around, trying to conjure an answer. "Uh, I'll see him next period," he finally said.

"Oh, cool! Well, if you see him, could you give him this?" Emily asked, passing Trent a piece of paper. "See you around!"

Trent took his usual seat next to Josh and pulled out his book. He glanced back up at Josh, who winked slowly at him. Trent felt his face heat up and quickly stuck his nose into his textbook.

"Oh, Emily has something for you," Trent said suddenly. He passed the folded paper to Josh.

Josh began unfolding the paper and reading it. When he finished, he glanced up to Trent, mouth agape.

"What's wrong?" Trent whispered.

Josh pressed a shaking finger to the note. "She knows what we did."

"She knows? Did you tell her?"

"I don't know! I call her all the time and maybe I called her when I was drunk! I don't know!" Josh began running his hands nervously through his red hair.

Trent leaned in to look at the note, which simply read " _We need to talk. I know what you did._ "

"Okay, but that's sorta vague," Trent said. "You could've done anything."

"She knows," Josh replied. "She's gonna break up with me because I kissed you."

Trent gulped and distracted himself with his book. He had to come up with a way to help his friend, but how?

"You didn't kiss me, I did," Trent whispered.

"That's... not how I remember it?"

Trent winked. "That's what I'll tell her. And that's what you'll tell her." He smiled. Taking the fall for Josh felt good. He knew it would come back to bite him in the ass later, but right now, all he wanted to do was help.

Josh smiled a bit, looking more reassured and less nervous. "Yeah. I can try that."

* * *

After class, Josh and Trent stepped out, on their way to their next class, but were surprised to see Emily waiting by the door.

"What are you doing here?" Josh asked.

Emily smirked. "Just hanging out. You guys do anything fun this weekend?"

Trent brushed his hands through his bangs. "Josh and I hung out?"

"Anything else?"

No response. Trent continued walking silently and eventually diverted from the group.

Once he was gone, Emily turned to Josh, smirk still spread across her face. "'Hung out', huh?" she asked, moving her hands to her hips.

"Hanging out," Josh repeated.

"Do you remember the answering machine message you left me Saturday night?"

Josh blushed. "I left you a message?"

"Yes," Emily replied. "You always call me when you're drunk, but this time, you had a story to tell me! Something about you and Trent..." Emily put her two pointer fingers up and began moving them closer until they were touching. "...together?"

"We drank and we hung out together," Josh replied sternly. "What makes you think something happened?"

"You said something about kissing him?"

"Listen, I don't have time for this shit," Josh said. "I have to get to class." He began walking faster, but Emily caught up, her combat boots slapping the floor.

"So does this mean we're over?" Emily asked. "I mean, a guy kissing another guy sorta implies something, huh, Josh?"

Josh rolled his eyes. "It's not like it was consensual or anything. That kid Trent just kinda jumped on me. And I didn't like it. So you can stop pretending like I'm gay or whatever, because it's not true." He moved his hand to touch Emily's face. "I only have eyes for you. Nobody else. Especially not Trent."

Satisfied with her answer, Emily smiled and entered her class.

 


	14. The Mark Has Been Made

At lunch, Trent felt the anxiety still bubbling inside of his stomach. He feared for Josh and what he had told Emily. He worried about who knew, or if anyone knew. It was written all over his face. It had to be. The nervous energy circling his stomach made it hard for him to even eat, so he spent the rest of the day hungry and beating himself up for not eating.

However, one thing that brightened up his day was seeing Josh at lunch. Trent sat at the deserted corner of the Kyuss table, but scooted in close to Josh once he took his seat.

"Oh, hey Trent!" Josh flashed one of his signature smiles.

Trent half-smiled back. He was happy - no, ecstatic - to see Josh, but it didn't show.

Josh felt his smile drop. "Something wrong?"

Trent wanted to scream. _Yes, something was wrong! I've got this big crush on you, but I know it's wrong because you have a girlfriend, and you're probably not into dudes! I don't know if I am either, but you were my first kiss, so I must be gay! And that's a problem!_ But instead, he shrugged nonchalantly. "Nah, I'm just tired."

Josh hadn't paid much attention to his friends sitting across from them, who were all giggling to themselves about something. The bell to end lunch rang, and Trent slipped out of the cafeteria as quickly as possible.

The Kyuss quartet began walking. "What's so funny, guys?" Josh asked.

John smiled, trying to hide the fact that he was still laughing. "Oh, we saw something funny on MTV last night."

"You wouldn't get it," Nick added quickly. "You had to be there, y'know?"

Josh smirked, unsatisfied with the answer. "Well, maybe I'll catch it tonight." And with that, he began walking half a step faster to get to class.

As soon as Josh was out of earshot, Nick, John, and Brant began giggling again.

"Bets are back on, fellas." John extended a hand. "When is Josh coming out of the closet?"

Nick slapped him an empty high-five. "Next month for sure. He's always been a little bi, but I can feel it coming."

"Are you kidding?" Brant asked, digging a dollar out of his jeans pocket. "He kissed me on the lips once. Really passionately. It's gonna happen soon," he finished, placing the dollar gently into John's palm.

"How soon, though?" John asked, pocketing the money.

Brant shrugged. "I'm no fortune teller. I'm just a dumbass who makes bets."

\-----

"Tera, can I ask you something?" Trent began, leaning his head into his sister's bedroom. She hadn't had the time to fully move in yet, but her posters, makeup, and miscellaneous knick-knacks were on display.

She stood in front of her vanity, applying her typical dark lipstick. "Sure. What's up?"

Trent stepped in further and took a seat on her bed. "How do you know if you're, uh...  _gay_?" He uttered "gay" under his breath as if it were some awful swear.

Tera nearly dropped her lipstick in shock. "What does that have to do with anything? Did something happen?" She capped the lipstick and clenched her fist. "If some jackass kids are being mean to you, I swear I'll-"

"No! No! Nothing like that!" Trent said quickly. "I was just... wondering."

She took a seat on the bed next to him. "Well, I would think it's sort of like how you know you love someone."

"So how do you know?"

Tera smiled. "It's a feeling deep in your gut, just waiting to be freed. A nest of butterflies pounding their bodies into your ribcage. But it doesn't hurt, it feels amazing. You wanna spend more time with this person you love. You wanna know all about them. You care about them, and they care about you, too. Hopefully. And... you just sort of know that everything is going to be okay when they're around."

Trent tried to hide his blushing face, and it only intensified as his sister went on. She was so smart when it came to stuff like this.

Trent stood up. "Thanks, sis," he said, as overpowering thoughts of Josh flooded into his mind. "I'll keep that in mind."

\-----

The next day in English class, surprisingly, went well. The teacher announced some sort of partner project revolving around  _The Scarlet Letter,_ their recent class reading.

At the discovery that the work could be divided among two people, Josh turned to Trent and grinned one of his classic Josh grins. Trent stifled his laughter. Tera was right, he really did love Josh. The question was, did Josh love him?

"Josh, did you even read the book?" Trent asked jokingly.

"Nope. Not even the title."

"Do you at least know what happens?"

Josh scoffed. "Yeah. Some girl has to wear a thing on her chest 'cause the whole village knows she's easy."

"That's - actually, you're right. That  _is_ the basic plot..."

Josh smiled. "It's not that hard to understand. There's a moral to the story, and the moral is... don't keep your legs open!"

Trent rolled his eyes, but that didn't stop him from laughing a little. "You're completely right."

"So..." Josh said, reaching over Trent and snatching his backpack.

"W-what are you doing?" Trent asked.

"We need to start planning this. I have an idea," Josh continued, pulling a piece of paper from Trent's backpack. "I'm coming over later, too, so we can start this. It's gonna be great, I promise."

Trent found himself powerless. Josh was a creative person, and when he had even just an inkling of an idea, he ran for miles with it. That level of creativity was not to be trifled with. "A-alright. See you then?"


	15. Go With the Flow

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone! Sorry it's been so long - school and work have been taking more out of my life than I'd anticipated. Hopefully this chapter tides everyone over for a bit!

"Regrets," Josh began. He was standing near the keyboard in Trent's basement and beginning to pace, as if he were some scatterbrained professor teaching a class. "We've all got 'em. But what makes regrets, well,  _regrettable?_ "

Trent raised his hand the way he had been conditioned to do. "Isn't that the point? If you don't regret it, then it was just a thing you did. Right?"

Josh stroked his chin in contemplation. "You make a good point, Trent. But regrets are more subjective. Which brings us to the idea I had..."

He stuck a hand in the pocket of his shorts and began feeling around for the crumpled-up piece of paper he had stolen from Trent. On it, only five words were written:  _We wear the scarlet letters._

Trent glared up at Josh with a confused look on his face. "We wear the what now? What crime are we representing?"

"The kiss," Josh replied nonchalantly. "I mean, I figure we're in deep enough shit by this point. Why not embrace it? Two dudes can kiss. It doesn't have to mean anything."

Trent felt his face turning red. He gulped. "Josh, it meant something... to me."

By this point, Trent knew he had a crush on Josh. How could he not? He felt like it was so obvious that he liked him, anyway, but he didn't want it to contribute to anything negative. Josh had a girlfriend, anyway, and as bitchy as she was, it meant Josh was straight. Josh didn't like boys, especially not boys like Trent. But he looked up to Josh so much, both metaphorically and literally, and his crush on Josh grew with each passing day.

"What do you mean?" Josh asked.

"That was my first kiss," Trent said softly, holding his head down.

Josh sighed. "I... I didn't know that. I just meant that, like, it doesn't change anything about us. I still like girls."

"Me too," Trent lied. At this point, he had no idea, but he wasn't ready to have some discussion with Josh about how he felt based on just one kiss.

But at this point, the butterflies in his stomach were ready to fly out any day.

"The way I see it," Josh continued, "everyone is gonna know by the time we present our project. So what's the shame in wearing a scarlet letter all day?"

Trent thought for a minute. "I guess... there's nothing to be ashamed of. I mean, it's just a project." 

It was so, so much more than that, but who was he to admit it?

Josh smiled. "Then it's settled! We can pick up some materials to make our letters and start working tonight!"

"Don't you think you're jumping the gun just a bit here?" Trent asked suddenly. "I mean, I love this idea, I think, but it's just so... massive."

"Massive idea for a massive grade," Josh replied, moving his eyes down to his nails, torn and jagged from years of aggressive guitar shredding. "I'm no straight-A student, but if we do well, this should massively boost both my grade and yours. That means..." Josh began, turning to Trent and smiling, "I'll finally be in the clear, and you'll be even better than you already are."

Trent covered his face in an attempt to conceal the blushing.  _Better than he already was._ For being such an intelligent student, getting a compliment on his intelligence was such a large boost to his slightly low confidence. Especially a compliment from Josh.

"Coach keeps tellin' me I've gotta bring up my English grade to at  _least_ a D so I can keep my position on the team," Josh continued.

Trent wasn't listening; he was just sort of staring at Josh. How could one teenage boy be so attractive? Those icy, pretty blue eyes; the way his hair just sort of laid recklessly on his head; the way his soft, thin lips turned and formed words and sounds...

"Uh, Trent?" Josh said suddenly. Trent jumped a bit - he hadn't noticed how much he had been staring off into space until he was brought back to Earth.

"Yeah? What's up?" Trent laughed nervously.

"I said, we should go and get our supplies tonight," Josh repeated, jangling his car keys in front of Trent.

* * *

The art supply store was an unknown territory to both boys, who were used to making simple projects and dioramas with simple household objects and things scavenged from classrooms past.

"What exactly do you have in mind?" Trent asked, still mostly unaware of Josh's nefarious plan.

"Well, they have those premade poster letters in packages, but they're too small to really be seen from a distance. Too small to be a  _real_ scarlet letter," Josh replied. "So maybe if we found some big, sturdy paper, we could cut out our own and attach some kind of pins," Josh replied, suddenly a real know-it-all when it came to project supplies and paper letters.

"Hmmm, what about-" Trent began. "Josh? Where'd you go?"

Trent sighed and began walking down the side of some small aisles, looking for Josh. He finally found the redhead boy, delicately sifting through different displays of colored lenticular paper.

"I thought you were right behind me," Josh said, holding up a particularly shiny piece of cardstock paper. "How about this?"

"It's a little... bright, don't you think?" Trent asked, feeling the need to shield his eyes from the light reflecting off the cardstock.

"Yeah, but it's a conversation starter. Like, someone will ask, "Hey, what's with that big, shiny letter on your shirt?' And I'll say, 'Well, I kissed a dude once.' And that'll be the project. A social experiment."

Trent rolled his eyes, but couldn't help himself from smiling. He joined Josh in looking for the right paper, and their hands met on one specific pattern.

The one they had chosen couldn't have been more representative of their so-called crime. While still shiny and reflective, the stripes of colors all collided to make a rainbow.

"Whoa, that's pretty gay," Josh muttered. He picked up two sheets, and Trent followed him to the checkout line.


	16. Demon Cleaner

A few weeks passed since Josh and Trent had begun the planning for their Scarlet Letter project. During that time, Josh stuck around at Trent's and practiced a lot of guitar to prepare for the upcoming Kyuss tour.

"What's that song called again, Josh?" Trent asked, watching the redheaded boy adjust the knobs on a bass amp after playing some riffs.

"Not sure yet," Josh muttered. "I'm still writing it." He picked up a notebook and began scribbling down more notes. Or maybe they were lyrics? Trent didn't want to trespass, but Josh's songs were just so interesting. He was dying to know his friend's creative process.

"If you had to give what you were writing a title, what would it be?"

Josh chuckled. "Oh, I dunno. Maybe it'll be called 'Demon Cleaner'."

"Whoa. That sounds so cool."

"If I told you it was about a recurring nightmare I've had since I was a kid, would you still think so?" Josh asked. He picked up his guitar and continued that same riff.

"That's even cooler, honestly," Trent replied, grinning. "I'm really into dreams and analyzing what they mean."

"Alright, this recurring nightmare has to do with me losing all of my teeth. So that's why I'm super super careful with them, 'cause what if that dream comes true?" Josh smiled, revealing a row of perfect, shiny teeth. "I mean. I still smoke, but it could be worse, y'know? At least I floss every day."

Trent laughed and felt his face getting hot. Josh was just so attractive in every way. He loved spending time with him and learning about him. Even silly stuff like his recurring nightmares.

"So what does that mean, Trent?" Josh asked.

"Huh?"

"The dream? Do you know what it means, dude?"

Trent snapped himself back into reality. "Oh, it's uh... fear of things changing. Fear of aging and not being able to be as productive."

"Interesting..." Josh said, turning back to his notebook. "So tell me what you think of these opening lyrics here."

Trent crossed his legs from his sitting position. "Alright."

"'I've got the demons in me, I've got to flush them all away'..." Josh sang.

"That's... really good," Trent said, clearly in awe.

Josh sighed. "Thanks. That's really all I've come up with. I was thinking the new album could have a softer approach? Not as angry, and in-your-face. Maybe more riffs and less yelling from John."

"I think he has a pretty cool voice," Trent said.

"You and me both, man, but he's just an egomaniac, y'know? It's  _his_ band. I'm gettin' sick of it. I've been wanting to leave and start my own thing, but..."

"But?"

"I can't really sing that well."

Trent cocked an eyebrow. "You sure do a lot of singing for someone who says they're bad at it."

"Yeah, but I'm just trying to get a feel for how the songs are going to sound. I'm not actually singing with all my heart. And when I do... I kinda sound like a dying farm animal."

Trent smirked. "I highly doubt that."

"You wanna hear?"

"I mean, if you want to sing for me..."

Josh flipped to a different page in his notebook and began strumming his guitar and singing. "'Who are you, girl? Who are you, boy? Bet I know...'" He immediately put his head down after singing and sighed. "I'm bad. I want to get better, though, but for now I don't mind being in the background. Besides, I get to write the songs, so I could write all kinds of messed-up shit for John to sing if I wanted."

"I mean, that song was really cool, Josh. And if you wanna start your own project, I support you."

Josh chuckled and tousled Trent's hair. "I really appreciate that, man. I just wanna do more experimental type stuff. Like I wanna lug all my gear out in the middle of nowhere, get high as balls, and play for days on end with a bunch of guys."

"You should do that. I bet it would be amazing."

"Oh, and speaking of amazing things with a bunch of guys, Brant's parents are going out of town for the weekend, so he's throwing a party before me and the guys go on our tour. Big bash for the sophomore class. Would you want to come as my plus-one?"

Trent gasped, but immediately regained himself. "Your plus-one? What about Emily?"

"Oh, right. Emily... she's going with a group of girls, I think. We're kinda... on a break."

"A break?" Trent didn't know the first thing about relationships. A break was only two letters away from a breakup, right?"

"Yeah. Like for now, we're single. But still dating. And not seeing each other." Josh sighed. "I wanna break up with her, but I just can't bring myself to disappoint her so much. I mean, this whole kiss thing you and I had was enough to put us on a break. But this party might be just the thing she and I both need. Meeting different people and stuff like that."

"Ah, I see," Trent said. "I think I can go."

Josh smiled. "Cool. So can I pick you up, say, Friday at 6?"

"It's a date!" Trent exclaimed.

Josh grabbed his gear and tousled Trent's hair again before heading out. "Awesome! This is gonna be so exciting. Your first real high school party." He began to head up the basement stairs but turned around quickly. "Oh, and Trent?"

"Yeah?"

"Brant has a pool. Bring your trunks," Josh added, before turning his head back and disappearing up the stairs.


End file.
